SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A CONCEPT PROBLEMATIC

Social entrepreneurship has recently seen greater attention from the public sector, as well as from researchers. However, the absence of a unifying paradigm in the area has led to a proliferation of definitions. In addition, several approaches to the phenomenon, and different schools of thought have emerged in different parts of the world. At first, because of the different conceptions of capitalism and the role of government, there seems to be a difference between the American and the European conceptions of social entrepreneurship. We will try in this communication to clarify the concepts of "social entrepreneurship", "social entrepreneur" and "social organization" and to consider whether there is a transatlantic divide in how they are designed and defined. After justifying the need of a definition, we will present different points according to geographical areas. We propose an explanation for key concepts surrounding social entrepreneurship and finally discuss the implications for future research.